Editor's note: This story has been updated with comments from Madhulika Sikka, public editor at PBS.

As part of its ongoing efforts to reach out to skeptical readers, PolitiFact announced today that it was adding two unorthodox bylines to its website. But one of them got the axe before the project took off.

This time last year, Americans were waiting for a new president to take office.

Donald Trump’s inauguration Jan. 20, 2017, came after a presidential campaign in which he made a laundry list of big promises, from repealing Obamacare to getting Mexico to pay for a border wall. And since then, fact-checkers have been keeping tabs on the details.

Editor's note: This story was first published on Dec. 25, 2014. It's premise is especially topical in this year of "fake news," so we decided to reprise it again.

As a boy, my favorite story genre was the cowboy movie. As I got a little older, I left Hopalong Cassidy behind in favor of parodies of cowboy movies, the kind of thing Mad magazine produced or Mel Brooks perfected in Blazing Saddles.

Gaps in information frustrate the work of fact-checkers. But what about when a government agency creates them?

“To know that the data has been tracked in the past and is maybe still tracked currently and is not being released — that just seems like a step backward,” said Angie Holan, editor of PolitiFact (a project of the Poynter-owned Tampa Bay Times).

“The genesis of the idea came from a brainstorming meeting in Washington, D.C., in early February,” said Aaron Sharockman, executive director of PolitiFact. “It was really kind of an idea that we should just go to a tailgate — go to a college football game and say we’re there — and draw a crowd and talk to people.”